Government Shutdown Less Than a Week Away

Government Shutdown and Trump’s Border Wall

Government shutdown is possible come the weekend. Part of this, at least according to the Democrats, has to do with the President making his controversial border wall the ‘do-or-die’ issue. Congress is faced with a funding measure by midnight on Friday. The funding is pretty basic – it is to keep the US government operating. President Trump wants the funding of the wall to be a part of the bill.

Congress was Resolving the Budget Issues…until…

Charles Schumer, Senate minority leader, said today that both parties were working together and well on their way to resolving the budget impasse when the White House got involved. He said, “Parties were negotiating quite well…until Donald Trump and the White House threw a monkey wrench into this, with the wall. It’s my view that if the president stepped out of it, we could get a budget done by Friday.”

Schumer said, “Instead of risking government shutdown by shoving this wall down Congress’ and American people’s throats, the president oughtt to just let us come to an agreement.

Trump wants a wall built along the 2,000 miles of the US-Mexico border. He says this is a national security measure. The costs frequently vary but it will run somewhere around $20 billion. The president’s spokesman, Sean Spicer said, “The president is going to fulfill a promise he made to the American people.” Over the weekend, the White House insisted that funding the wall be included in the spending bill.

Trump continues to insist that Mexico will repay the US for the wall if it is first funded by Congress. However, the Mexican government continues to insist it will not finance a wall. So far Trump has not given a plan to force Mexico to pay.